Disgruntled employee shoots boss, kills self in Chicago building

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A man upset about a job demotion gravely wounded the chief executive of his company in a downtown Chicago office building and then fatally shot himself, police said on Thursday.

The 54-year-old executive was taken to the hospital with gunshot wounds to his stomach and head. The dead gunman was 59 years old.

Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said he could not confirm the name of the company but the Chicago Sun-Times said it was the software firm ArrowStream.

McCarthy described the shooting as an isolated workplace incident.

"He's a long time employee who comes in with a backpack like an employee normally does," he said of the gunman. "It's basically a personal thing. The company is downsizing and a number of people were demoted ...

"He asked for a one-on-one with the CEO and that's when this happened," McCarthy said.

Police were interviewing 10 witnesses who were on the 17th floor of the Bank of America building on South LaSalle Street, where the shooting happened before 10 a.m., he said.

Neil Machchhar, an information technology specialist who works on the 14th floor of the building, told Reuters an announcement came over the building's public address system telling employees to "stay in place" because there was an armed intruder in the building.